Setting Up System Configuration

Default System Configuration on the Cisco ENCS

The diagram below illustrates the default network configuration of Cisco Enterprise NFVIS with the Cisco ENCS.

Figure 1. Default Network Configuration of Cisco Enterprise NFVIS with the Cisco ENCS 5400


Figure 2. Default Network Configuration of Cisco Enterprise NFVIS with the Cisco ENCS 5100

  • LAN ports—Eight physical Gigabit Ethernet ports for inbound and outbound traffic.

  • WAN port—You can use one of the dual media Ethernet ports (wan-br and wan2-br) for DHCP connection.

  • Bridges—They form a Layer 2 domain between virtual network interface controllers (vNICs) of VMs. A vNIC is used by a virtual machine to provide virtual network interfaces by defining a range of MAC addresses. The default management IP address (192.168.1.1) for the NFVIS host is configured on the management port. Multiple VMs can use the same LAN port for local connectivity.

  • Network—It is a segment Layer 2 bridge domain where only the specific VLAN traffic is allowed.

  • Reserved VLANs in the LAN network on the ENCS 5400 platform—The VLAN range 2350-2449 is reserved for internal use and should not be used on the external switch ports and for virtual machines in the LAN ports". Note that this limitation doesn't apply to the WAN ports.

  • Internal 192.168.10.00/24 and 192.168.50.0/24 networks—The IP subnet 192.168.10.0/24 and 192.168.50.0/24 are used for the ENCS-5400 internal networks. A user should not use this IP subnet on the NFVIS management network. In the future NFVIS releases, this internal subnet will be isolated so that users can use this for NFVIS management.


Note

The following networks and bridges are automatically configured. You can configure more as required.

  • A LAN network (lan-net) and a LAN bridge (lan-br)

  • A WAN network (wan-net) and a WAN bridge (wan-br)

wan2-net and wan2-br are the default configurations for ENCS 5400 and ENCS 5100.

The default networks and bridges cannot be deleted.

Default System Configuration on the Cisco UCS C220 M4 Server and Cisco CSP 2100

Configuring the networks in Cisco Enterprise NFVIS allows inbound and outbound traffic and VMs to be service chained. The following diagram illustrates the default network configuration:

Figure 3. Default Network Configuration with Cisco UCS C220 M4 and Cisco CSP 2100


The following networks and bridges are created by default, and cannot be deleted. You can configure more as required.

  • A LAN network (lan-net) and a LAN bridge (lan-br)—The default static management IP address (192.168.1.1) for the NFVIS host is configured on the LAN bridge. All other ports for inbound and outbound traffic are associated with the LAN bridge. Any LAN port can be used to access the default static IP address. By default, the hostname is set to "nfvis".

  • A WAN network (wan-net) and a WAN bridge (wan-br)—This is created with the "eth0" port, and is configured to enable the DHCP connection.

By default, the first port on the device is associated with the WAN bridge. All the other ports on the device are associated with the LAN bridge.

For more details about the initial setup, see the Installing the Server chapter in the Cisco UCS C220 M4 Server Installation and Service Guide or Cisco Cloud Services Platform 2100 Hardware Installation Guide.

Default System Configuration on the Cisco UCS E-Series Servers

Figure 4. Default Network Configuration with a Cisco UCS E-Series Server


The following networks and bridges are created by default, and cannot be deleted. You can configure more as required.

  • A LAN network (lan-net) and a LAN bridge (lan-br)—The default static management IP address (192.168.1.1) for the NFVIS host is configured on the LAN bridge. All other ports for inbound and outbound traffic are associated with the LAN bridge. By default, the hostname is set to "nfvis".
  • A WAN network (wan-net) and a WAN bridge (wan-br)— The physical WAN ports are on the Cisco ISR module. They are not externally available on the Cisco UCS E server. The WAN traffic comes from the ISR WAN ports, and goes through the backplane to the Cisco UCS-E server. The backplane has one internal WAN interface (GE0) to establish connection with the Cisco UCS-E server. By default, the "GE0" interface is enabled for the DHCP connection.

For more details on the initial setup, see the Getting Started Guide for Cisco UCS E-Series Servers and the Cisco UCS E-Series Network Compute Engine.

Setting Up Initial Configuration

For initial login, use admin as the default user name, and Admin123# as the default password. Immediately after the initial login, the system prompts you to change the default password. You must set a strong password as per the on-screen instructions to proceed with the application. All other operations are blocked until default password is changed. API will return 401 unauthorized error if the default password is not reset.

If wan-br and wan2-br has not obtained IP addresses through DHCP, the zero touch deployment is terminated. To manually apply the IP configurations answer 'y' and the system proceeds with dhclient on wan-br until the configurations are changed. For dhclient to continue to request IP address for PnP flow on both WAN interfaces answer 'n'.

You must follow the rules to create a strong password:

  • Must contain at least one upper case and one lower case letter.

  • Must contain at least one number and one special character (# _ - * ?).

  • Must contain seven characters or greater. Length should be between 7 and 128 characters.

You can change the default password in three ways:

  • Using the Cisco Enterprise NFVIS portal.

  • Using the CLI—When you first log into Cisco Enterprise NFVIS through SSH, the system will prompt you to change the password.

  • Using PnP (for details, see the Cisco Network Plug-n-Play Support).

  • Using console - After the initial login using the default password, you are prompted to change the default password.

    
NFVIS Version: 3.10.0-9

Copyright (c) 2015-2018 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Cisco, Cisco Systems, and Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco
Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries.

The copyrights to certain works contained in this software are owned by other
third parties and used and distributed under third party license agreements.
Certain components of this software are licensed under the GNU GPL 2.0, GPL 3.0,
LGPL 2.1, LGPL 3.0 and AGPL 3.0.

nfvis login: console (automatic login)

login:
login:
login:
login:
login: admin

Cisco Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure Software (NFVIS)

NFVIS Version: 3.10.0-9

Copyright (c) 2015-2018 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Cisco, Cisco Systems, and Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco
Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries.

The copyrights to certain works contained in this software are owned by other
third parties and used and distributed under third party license agreements.
Certain components of this software are licensed under the GNU GPL 2.0, GPL 3.0,
LGPL 2.1, LGPL 3.0 and AGPL 3.0.

admin@localhost's password:

admin connected from ::1 using ssh on nfvis
nfvis# show version

Note

To commit the target configuration to the active (running) configuration, use the commit command in any configuration mode in Cisco Enterprise NFVIS Release 3.5.1 and later. Changes made during a configuration session are inactive until the commit command is entered. By default, the commit operation is pseudo-atomic, meaning that all changes must succeed for the entire commit operation to succeed.

Connecting to the System

Using IPv4

The three interfaces that connect the user to the system are the WAN and WAN2 interfaces and the management interface. By default, the WAN interface has the DHCP configuration and the management interface is configured with the static IP address 192.168.1.1. If the system has a DHCP server connected to the WAN interface, the WAN interface will receive the IP address from this server. You can use this IP address to connect to the system.

You can connect to the server locally (with an Ethernet cable) using the static management IP address; to connect to the box remotely using a static IP address, the default gateway needs to be configured.

You can connect to the system in the following three ways:

  • Using the local portal—After the initial login, you are prompted to change the default password.

  • Using the KVM console—After the initial login using the default password, you are prompted to change the default password.

  • Using PnP—After the initial provisioning through PnP, the configuration file pushed by the PNP server must include the new password for the default user (admin).

Using IPv6

IPv6 can be configured in static, DHCP stateful and Stateless Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) mode. By default, DHCP IPv6 stateful is configured on the WAN interface. If DHCP stateful is not enabled on the network, the router advertisement (RA) flag decides which state the network stays in. If the RA shows Managed (M) flag, then the network stays in DHCP mode, even if there is no DHCP server in the network. If the RA shows Other (O) flag, then the network switches from DHCP server to SLAAC mode.

SLAAC provides ipv6 address and default gateway. Stateless dhcp is enabled in the SLAAC mode. If the server has dns and domain configured, then SLAAC also provides those values via stateless dhcp.

Performing Static Configuration without DHCP


Note

Starting from NFVIS 3.10.1 release, for ENCS 5400 and ENCS 5100, wan2-br obtains an IP address from DHCP. To configure default gateway, first use no bridges bridge wan2-br dhcp command.

If you want to disable DHCP and use static configuration, initial configuration is done by setting the WAN IP address and/or management IP address, and the default gateway. You can also configure a static IP on a created bridge.

To perform initial configuration on the system without using DHCP: 


configure terminal
system settings mgmt ip address 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0 
bridges bridge wan-br ip address 209.165.201.22 255.255.255.0
system settings default-gw 209.165.201.1
commit

Note

When an interface is configured with a static IP address, DHCP is automatically disabled on that interface.

Now you can either use the management IP or WAN IP to access the portal.

To configure static IPv6 on the WAN interface:


configure terminal
system settings mgmt ipv6 address 2001:DB8:1:1::72/64 
bridges bridge wan-br ipv6 address 2001:DB8:1:1::75/64
system settings default-gw-ipv6 2001:DB8:1:1::76
commit

Note

When an interface is configured with a static IPv6 address, DHCP IPv6 is automatically disabled on that interface. There are three options for IPv6 - static, DHCP and SLAAC, out of which only one can be enabled at a time.

Configuring DHCP on the WAN or Management Interface


Note

Starting from NFVIS 3.10.1, you can configure DHCP on any bridge. You can only have one DHCP bridge or management interface active at a time, and cannot have DHCP and default gateway configured at the same time.

You can configure DHCP either on the WAN interface or the management interface; you cannot configure DHCP on both the interfaces simultaneously.

To configure DHCP on any one of the interfaces (WAN or management), delete the default gateway.

To configure DHCP on the management interface: 


configure terminal
no system settings default-gw
system settings mgmt dhcp
commit
exit
hostaction mgmt-dhcp-renew

To configure DHCP IPv6 on the management interface:


configure terminal
no system settings default-gw-ipv6
system settings mgmt dhcp-ipv6
commit
exit
hostaction mgmt-dhcp-renew

To configure DHCP on the WAN interface: 


configure terminal
no system settings default-gw
system settings wan dhcp
commit
exit
hostaction wan-dhcp-renew

Note

Starting from NFVIS 3.10.1, you can configure DHCP IPv6 on any bridge. You can only have one DHCP IPv6 bridge or management interface active at a time, and cannot have DHCP IPv6 and default gateway IPv6 or SLAAC IPv6 configured at the same time.

To configure DHCP IPv6 on the WAN interface: 


configure terminal
no system settings default-gw-ipv6
system settings wan dhcp-ipv6
commit
exit
hostaction wan-dhcp-renew

Configuring SLAAC on the WAN or Management Interface


Note

Starting from NFVIS 3.10.1, you can configure SLAAC IPv6 on any bridge. You can only have one SLAAC IPv6 bridge or management interface active at a time, and cannot have SLAAC IPv6 and default gateway IPv6 or DHCP IPv6 configured at the same time.

To configure SLAAC IPv6 on the WAN interface: 


configure terminal
system settings wan slaac-ipv6
commit

To configure SLAAC IPv6 on the management interface:


configure terminal
system settings mgmt slaac-ipv6
commit

Verifying Initial Configuration

The show system settings-native command is used to verify initial configuration. Use show bridge-settings and show bridge-settings bridge_name commands to verify the configuration for any bridge on the system.

Extract from the output of the show system settings-native command when both WAN and management interfaces have a static configuration: 


system settings-native mgmt ip-info interface lan-br
system settings-native mgmt ip-info ipv4_address 192.168.1.2
system settings-native mgmt ip-info netmask 255.255.255.0
!
!
!
system settings-native mgmt dhcp disabled
system settings-native wan ip-info interface wan-br
system settings-native wan ip-info ipv4_address 209.165.201.22 
system settings-native wan ip-info netmask 255.255.255.0
!
!
!
system settings-native wan dhcp disabled
!
!
system settings-native gateway ipv4_address 209.165.201.1
system settings-native gateway interface wan-br

Extract from the output of the show system settings-native command when the management interface has a DHCP configuration and the WAN interface has a static configuration: 


system settings-native mgmt ip-info interface MGMT
system settings-native mgmt ip-info ipv4_address 192.168.1.2
system settings-native mgmt ip-info netmask 255.255.255.0
!
!
!
system settings-native mgmt dhcp enabled
system settings-native wan ip-info interface wan-br
system settings-native wan ip-info ipv4_address 209.165.201.22
system settings-native wan ip-info netmask 255.255.255.0
!
!
!
system settings-native wan dhcp disabled

Extract from the output of the show system settings-native command when the WAN interface has a DHCP configuration and the management interface has a static configuration: 


system settings-native mgmt ip-info interface lan-br
system settings-native mgmt ip-info ipv4_address 209.165.201.2 
system settings-native mgmt ip-info netmask 255.255.255.0
!
!
!
system settings-native mgmt dhcp disabled
system settings-native wan ip-info interface wan-br
system settings-native wan ip-info ipv4_address 209.165.201.22
system settings-native wan ip-info netmask 255.255.255.0
!
!
!
system settings-native wan dhcp enabled

Related APIs and Commands

APIs

Commands

  • /api/operational/system/settings-native

  • /api/config/system/settings

  • /api/operational/bridge-settings

  • /api/config/bridges/bridge/

  • system settings hostname

  • system settings default-gw

  • system settings mgmt ip address

  • system settings mgmt dhcp

  • system settings wan ip address

  • system settings wan dhcp

  • hostaction wan-dhcp-renew

  • hostaction mgmt-dhcp-renew

  • bridges bridge wan-br ip address

  • bridges bridge wan-br dhcp

  • bridges bridge wan2-br ip address

  • bridges bridge wan2-br dhcp

  • bridges bridge user-br ip address

  • bridges bridge user-br dhcp

  • hostaction bridge-dhcp-renew bridge wan-br

  • hostaction bridge-dhcp-renew bridge wan2-br

  • hostaction bridge-dhcp-renew bridge user-br

Configuring VLAN for NFVIS Management Traffic

A VLAN is a method of creating independent logical networks within a physical network. VLAN tagging is the practice of inserting a VLAN ID into a packet header in order to identify which VLAN the packet belongs to.

You can configure a VLAN tag on the WAN bridge (wan-br) interface to isolate Cisco Enterprise NFVIS management traffic from VM traffic. You can also configure VLAN on any bridge on the system (wan2-br for ENCS5400 or ENCS 5100, and user-br for all systems)


Note

You cannot have the same VLAN configured for the NFVIS management and VM traffc.

For more details on the VLAN configuration, see the Understanding and Configuring VLANs module in the Catalyst 4500 Series Switch Cisco IOS Software Configuration Guide.

To configure a VLAN:


configure terminal
bridges bridge wan-br vlan 120

commit

Verifying VLAN Configuration

Run the show bridge-settings wan-br vlan command to verify the VLAN configuration as shown below:

nfvis# show bridge-settings wan-br vlan
bridges bridge wan-br vlan 120

VLAN APIs and Commands

VLAN APIs

VLAN Commands

  • /api/config/bridges/bridge/wan-br/vlan

  • /api/config/bridges/bridge/wan2-br/vlan

  • /api/config/bridges/bridge/user-br/vlan

  • /api/operational/bridge-settings/bridge/wan-br/vlan

  • /api/operational/bridge-settings/bridge/wan2-br/vlan

  • /api/operational/bridge-settings/bridge/user-br/vlan

  • bridges bridge wan2-br vlan

  • bridges bridge user-br vlan

  • show bridge-settings wan-br vlan

  • show bridge-settings wan2-br vlan

  • show bridge-settings user-br vlan

  • show bridge-settings vlan

Configuring System Routes

In addition to the default routes in the system, you can configure additional system routes. This configuration is specifically useful when certain destinations are not reachable through the default routes.

While you can create a route just by providing the destination and prefix length, a valid route requires that you specify either a device or a gateway or both.

To configure additional system routes:


configure terminal
system routes route  209.165.201.1 dev lan-br
commit

Verifying the System Routes Configuration

To verify the system routes configuration, use the show system routes command as shown below: 


nfvis# show system routes
DESTINATION 	PREFIXLEN 	STATUS
----------------------------------
209.165.201.1 	12 -
209.165.201.2 	12 -
209.165.201.3 	24 -

System Routes APIs and Commands

System Routes APIs

System Routes Commands

  • /api/config/system/routes

  • /api/config/system/routes/route/<host

    destination,netmask>

  • system routes route

  • show system routes

User Roles and Authentication

Role based access enables the administrator to manage different levles of access to the system's compute, storage, database, and application services. It uses the access control concepts such as users, groups, and rules, which you can apply to individual API calls. You can also keep a log of all user activities.

Table 1. Supported User Roles and Privileges

User Role

Privilege

Administrators

Owns everything, can perform all tasks including changing of user roles, but cannot delete basic infrastructure. Admin's role cannot be changed; it is always "administrators".

Operators

Start and stop a VM, and view all information

Auditors

Read-only permission

Rules for User Passwords

The user passwords must meet the following requirements:

  • Must have at least seven characters length or the minimum required length configured by the admin user.

  • Must not have more than 128 characters.

  • Must contain a digit.

  • Must contain one of the following special characters: hash (#), underscore (_), hyphen (-), asterisk (*), and question mark (?).

  • Must contain an uppercase character and a lowercase character.

  • Must not be same as last five passwords.

Creating Users and Assigning Roles

The administrator can create users and define user roles as required. You can assign a user to a particular user group. For example, the user "test1" can be added to the user group "administrators".


Note

All user groups are created by the system. You cannot create or modify a user group.

To create a user:


configure terminal
rbac authentication users create-user name test1 password Test1_pass role administrators
commit

To delete a user:


configure terminal
rbac authentication users delete-user name test1
commit

Note

To change the password, use the rbac authentication users user change-password command in global configuartion mode. To change the user role, use the rbac authentication users user change-role command in global configuration mode.

User Management APIs and Commands

User Management APIs

User Management Commands

  • /api/config/rbac/authentication/users

  • /api/operations/rbac/authentication/users

    /user/<user-name>/change-password

  • /api/operations/rbac/authentication/users/user

    /oper/change-role

  • /api/config/rbac/authentication/users/user?deep

  • rbac authentication users

  • rbac authentication users user change-password

  • rbac authentication users user change-role

Configuring Minimum Length for Passwords

The admin user can configure the minimum length required for passwords of all users. The minimum length must be between 7 to 128 characters. By default, the minimum length required for passwords is set to 7 characters. 


configure terminal
rbac authentication min-pwd-length 10
commit

Minimum Password Length APIs and Commands

APIs

Commands

/api/config/rbac/authentication/

rbac authentication min-pwd-length

Configuring Password Lifetime

The admin user can configure minimum and maximum lifetime values for passwords of all users and enforce a rule to check these values. The default minimum lifetime value is set to 1 day and the default maximum lifetime value is set to 60 days.

When a minimum lifetime value is configured, the user cannot change the password until the specified number of days have passed. Similarly, when a maximum lifetime value is configured, a user must change the password before the specified number of days pass. If a user does not change the password and the specified number of days have passed, a notification is sent to the user.


Note

The minimum and maximum lifetime values and the rule to check for these values are not applied to the admin user.

 

configure terminal
rbac authentication password-lifetime enforce true min-days 2 max-days 30
commit

Password Lifetime APIs and Commands

APIs

Commands

/api/config/rbac/authentication/password-lifetime/

rbac authentication password-lifetime

Deactivating Inactive User Accounts

The admin user can configure the number of days after which an unused user account is marked as inactive and enforce a rule to check the configured inactivity period. When marked as inactive, the user cannot login to the system. To allow the user to login to the system, the admin user can activate the user account by using the rbac authentication users user username activate command.


Note

The inactivity period and the rule to check the inactivity period are not applied to the admin user.

 

configure terminal
rbac authentication account-inactivity enforce true inactivity-days 2
commit

Deactivate Inactive User Accounts APIs and Commands

APIs

Commands

/api/config/rbac/authentication/account-inactivity/

rbac authentication account-inactivity

Activating an Inactive User Account

The admin user can activate the account of an inactive user.


configure terminal
rbac authentication users user guest_user activate
commit

Activate Inactive User Account APIs and Commands

APIs

Commands

/api/operations/rbac/authentication/users/user/username/activate

rbac authentication users user activate

Certification

Generate Sign-Request


nfvis(config)# system certificate signing-request ?

Possible completions:

  common-name             country-code  

  locality                organization  

  organization-unit-name  state

The .csr file will be saved in /data/intdatastore/download/nfvis.csr

Use the scp command to download the file.

Install CA Sign Certificate

After CA sign in, the user needs to use the scp command to upload the file into nfvis.


nfvis(config)# system certificate install-cert path file:///<full path of the file>

The path needs to start with "file://"

Switch Certificate


nfvis(config)# system certificate use-cert cert-type ca-signed

nginx process restarts after the switch.

The users cannot access the log files. The log files are added to all the user actions and the user can download and view some of the logs from portal. A notification is generated when the log files reach 75% capacity.

Secure Copy Command

The secure copy (scp) command allows only the admin user to secure copy a file from the Cisco NFVIS to an external system or from an external system to Cisco NFVIS. The scp command is:

scp source destination


Note

For detailed information about how to use the scp command to copy to or from supported locations, see the scp section in Cisco Enterprise Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure Software Command Reference.

Examples

The following example copies the sample.txt file from intdatastore to an external system.

nfvis# scp intdatastore:sample.txt user@203.0.113.2:/Users/user/Desktop/sample.txt

The following example copies the test.txt file from an external system to intdatastore. 

nfvis# scp user@203.0.113.2:/Users/user/Desktop/test.txt intdatastore:test_file.txt

The following example copies the test.txt file from an external system to USB. 

nfvis# scp user@203.0.113.2:/user/Desktop/my_test.txt usb:usb1/test.txt

The following example copies the sample.txt file to an NFS location. 

nfvis# scp user@203.0.113.2:/user/Desktop/sample.txt nfs:nfs_test/sample.txt

The following example copies the sample.txt file from an external system with IPv6 address.

nfvis# scp user@[2001:DB8:0:ABCD::1]:/user/Desktop/sample.txt intdatastore:sample.txt

The following example copies the nfvis_scp.log file to an external system.

nfvis# scp logs:nfvis_scp.log user@203.0.113.2:/Users/user/Desktop/copied_nfvis_scp.log

Configuring the IP Receive ACL

To filter out unwanted traffic, you can configure ip-receive-acl to block or allow certain traffic based on the IP address and service ports.

To configure the source network for Access Control List (ACL) access to the management interface: 


configure terminal
system setting ip-receive-acl 198.0.2.0/24
commit

Verifying the Trusted IP Connection

Use the show running-config system settings ip-receive-ac command to display the configured source network for ACL access to the management interface 


nfvis# show running-config system settings ip-receive-ac 
system settings ip-receive-acl 198.51.100.11/24
service
[ ssh https scpd]
action accept
priority 100

Port 22222 and Management Interface ACL

Management interface ACL provides the Access Control List (ACL) to restrict the traffic through the management interface for setting up different ACL of subnet inside a big subnet. From 3.7.1 release, port 22222 is closed by default on an NFVIS system.

To open port 22222:


configure terminal
system settings ip-receive-acl 0.0.0.0/0 service scpd priority 2 action accept
commit

Note

Priority can be set to any number, as long as there is no other ACL that drops packets from same IP with lower priority number.

Use no system settings ip-receive-acl to close port 22222. When an entry is deleted from ip-receive-acl , all configurations to that source are deleted since the source IP address is the key. To delete one service, configure other services again.


Note

From 3.8.1 release, only an admin user can use the scp command on this port to upload or download only from restricted folders like /data/intdatastore/.

Use the show running-config system settings ip-receive-acl command to verify the interface configuration: 


nfvis# show running-config system settings ip-receive-acl

system settings ip-receive-acl 10.156.0.0/16

 service  [ ssh https scpd ]

 action   accept

 priority 100

!

Configuring Your Banner and Message of the Day

Cisco Enterprise NFVIS supports two types of banners: system-defined and user-defined banners. You cannot edit or delete the system-defined banner, which provides copyright information about the application. Banners are displayed on the login page of the portal.

You can post messages using the Message of the Day option. The message is displayed on the portal's home page when you log into the portal.

To configure your banner and message:


configure terminal
banner-motd banner "This is a banner" motd "This is the message of the day"
commit

Note

Currently, you can create banners and messages in English only. You can view the system-defined banner using the show banner-motd command. This command does not display the user-defined banner or message.

Banner and Message APIs and Commands

Banner and Message APIs

Banner and Message Commands

  • /api/config/banner-motd

  • /api/operational/banner-motd

  • banner-motd

  • show banner-motd

Setting the System Time Manually or With NTP

You can configure the Cisco Enterprise NFVIS system time manually or synchronise with an external time server using Network Time Protocol (NTP).

To set the system time manually:


configure terminal
system set-manual-time 
2017-01-01T00:00:00
commit

Note

NTP is automatically disabled when the time clock is set manually.

To set the system time using NTP IPv4: 


configure terminal
system time  ntp preferred_server 
209.165.201.20 backup_server 1.ntp.esl.cisco.com
commit

To set the system time using NTP IPv6:


configure terminal
system time  ntp-ipv6 
2001:420:30d:201:ffff:ffff:fff4:35
commit

Verifying the System Time Configuration

To verify all system time configuration details, use the show system time command in privileged EXEC mode as shown below: 


nfvis# show system time

system time current-time 2017-01-01T17:35:39+00:00

system time current-timezone "UTC (UTC, +0000)"

REMOTE               REFID  	ST   	T         WHEN       POLL       REACH         DELAY         OFFSET        JITTER    

=================================================================================================================================================

*calo-timeserver     .GPS.   	1          u           4  	64           1         69.423         2749736        0.000     

* sys.peer and synced, o pps.peer, # selected, + candidate,

- outlyer, . excess, x falseticker, space reject

If the NTP server is invalid, it will not be displayed in the table. Also, when an NTP server is queried, if a response is not received before the timeout, the NTP server will also not be displayed in the table.

System Time APIs and Commands

APIs

Commands

  • /api/operations/system/set-manual-time

  • /api/config/system/time/ntp/preferred_server

  • /api/config/system/time/ntp/backup_server

  • /api/config/system/time/timezone

  • /api/operational/system/time?deep

  • system time

  • show system time

  • system set-manual-time

Enabling or Disabling the Portal Access

The Cisco Enterprise NFVIS portal access is enabled by default. You can disable the access if required.

To disable the portal access:


configure terminal
system portal access disabled 
commit

Note

You can enable the portal access using the enable keyword with the system portal access command.

Verifying the Portal Access

Use the show system portal status command to verify the portal access status as shown below: 


nfvis# show system portal status
system portal status "access disabled"

Portal Access APIs and Commands

Portal Access APIs

Portal Access Commands

  • /api/config/system/portal

  • /api/operational/system/portal/status

  • system portal access

  • show system portal status

Configuring System Logs

You can view system logs for troubleshooting purpose. There are two log types and five log levels. The two log types are configuration and operational.

The INFO and WARNING log levels are set by default respectively for the configuration and operational log types. You can change them as required. However, the change to the log level is not persisted across a reboot. After a reboot, the default log levels are used.

The following table explains the log levels:

Log Level

Purpose

DEBUG

Information, typically of interest only when diagnosing problems.

INFO

Confirmation that things are working as expected.

WARNING

An indication that something unexpected happened, or indicative of some problem in the near future (for example, ‘disk space low’). The software application is still working as expected.

ERROR

Due to a serious problem, the software application is not able to perform some function.

CRITICAL

A serious error, indicating that the program itself may not be ble to continue running.

You can configure system logs using the system set-log command in global configuration or privileged EXEC mode: 


system set-log level error logtype configuration

Verifying the System Log Configuration

To verify the system log configuration, use the show system logging-level command as shown below: 


nfvis# show system logging-level
system logging-level configuration error
system logging-level operational warning

System Log APIs and Commands

System Log APIs

System Log Commands

  • /api/operations/system/set-log

  • /api/operational/system/logging-level

  • system set-log logtype [all/configuration/operational] level [critical/debug/error/info/warning]

  • show system logging-level

Network File System Support

The Network File System (NFS) is an application where the user can view, store and update the files on a remote device. NFS allows the user to mount all or a part of a file system on a server. NFS uses Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) to route requests between the users and servers.

NFS Mount and Unmount

To mount NFS:


configure terminal
system storage nfs_storage
nfs
100
10.29.173.131
/export/vm/amol
commit

To unmount NFS use no system storage nfs_storage command.

Image Registration on NFS

Images in tar.gz, ISO and qcow2 format, remote images and images on mounted NFS can be registered on NFS.

To register tar.gz images on NFS:


configure terminal
vm_lifecycle images image myas10 src file:///data/mount/nfs_storage/repository/asav961.tar.gz
properties property placement value nfs_storage
commit

Similar configuration can be used for the various images formats.

To unregister an image from NFS use no vm_lifecycle images command.

Deploy VM on NFS

To deploy a VM on NFS, under deployment vm group use placement type zone_host host nfs_storage command.

Secure Boot of host


Note

This feature is available only for NFVIS 3.9.1 release fresh install and supported only on ENCS 5400. Upgrade BIOS to version 2.6 for this feature.

The secure boot feature prevents malicious software applications and unauthorized operating systems from loading into the system during the system start up process. If secure boot feature is enabled, only the authorized software applications boots up from the device. Each device has keys that allow software with the correct signature to boot up on the device.

This feature ensures that the software applications that boot up on the device are certified by Cisco. The NFVIS 3.9.1 image is signed with Cisco key. If secure boot is enabled the signature is verified during the device boot up. If the verification fails, the image does not boot up.

Secure boot is disabled by default and to enable it you must change firmware configurations from CIMC. Secure boot needs to boot from a separate UEFI partition.

To enable secure boot:

  1. Access CIMC and use show bios detail command to view the BIOS version. 

    
ENCS# scope bios
ENCS/bios # show detail
BIOS:
    BIOS Version: " ENCS54_2.6 (Build Date: 07/12/2018)"
    Boot Order: EFI
    FW Update/Recovery Status: Done, OK
    Active BIOS on next reboot: main
    UEFI Secure Boot: disabled
ENCS/bios # 

  2. Enable secure boot of host.

    
ENCS/bios # set secure-boot enable
Setting Value : enable
Commit Pending.
ENCS/bios *# commit
ENCS/bios # show detail
BIOS:
    BIOS Version: "ENCS54_2.6 (Build Date: 07/12/2018)"
    Boot Order: EFI
    FW Update/Recovery Status: None, OK
    Active BIOS on next reboot: main
    UEFI Secure Boot: enabled
ENCS/bios #

Legacy boot, UEFI boot and UEFI secure boot are the three boot modes. Secure boot can only be used on a disk that has UEFI partition.

You can configure boot order from CIMC command or portal or from BIOS setup menu. You can only configure legacy boot order with CIMC . By default, BootOrderRules are set to Strict , so the boot order follows the CIMC configuration. Since CIMC cannot be used to configure UEFI boot order, to enable secure boot change the BootOrderRules setting to Loose .

If BootOrderRules is set to Loose , the boot order follows the BIOS setup menu. When an operating system is installed in secure boot mode, the new UEFI boot option for the OS automatically appears at the top of the BIOS menu boot order list, to boot the installed operating system.

To set BootOrderRules to Loose : 


ENCS/bios # scope advanced 
ENCS/bios/advanced # set BootOrderRules Loose
ENCS/bios/advanced *# commit
Changes to BIOS set-up parameters will require a reboot.
Do you want to reboot the system?[y|N]y

Secure Boot of VNF

Starting from NFVIS 3.11.1 release, support for UEFI secure boot of secure boot capable VNFs is added. A secure compute system ensures that the intended software on the system runs without malware or tampered software. This protection begins as soon as the system is powered-on. The UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) specification defines a secure boot methodology that prevents loading software which is not signed with an acceptable digital signature.

NFVIS already supports UEFI secure boot for the host to ensure that the NFVIS software boot up is genuine. This feature is now extended to UEFI secure boot to the VNF. VNF secure boot requires an environment to support UEFI secure boot and modification of the VNF to support secure boot. This release adds the infrastructure in NFVIS to support UEFI secure boot of secure-boot capable VNFs.

VNFs can indicate their secure boot capability using properties in the image_properties.xml file in the tar.gz package for the VNF. VNFs can boot in both BIOS and UEFI secure firmware modes.

The VNF shim is signed by Microsoft which is specified as an additional image property shim_signature with the value as microsoft or N/A

The supported secure boot combinations of VNFs are:


boot_mode: efi-secure-boot,
shim_signature: microsoft


boot_mode: bios,
shim_signature: N/A

Combinations that do not match the above will default to the BIOS mode. The Image Repository page on the NFVIS portal shows if the image is capable of secure boot.

CIMC Control

On ENCS 5400, NFVIS administrators have authoritative control of the device. This includes capability to change the IP address used to reach the CIMC and modifying the CIMC and BIOS passwords

CIMC Access using NFVIS


Note

CIMC access using NFVIS is supported only on ENCS 5400.

To access CIMC using NFVIS WAN or management interface IP address, use the system settings cimc-access enable command. Once you configure CIMC access on NFVIS, the stand alone CIMC access using CIMC IP address is disabled and you will be able to access CIMC using NFVIS management interface IP address. The configurations remain on the device even after the device reboot.

When the CIMC access is configured, it enables a few ports to access services like SSH, SNMP, HTTP and HTTPs into the CIMC.

The following port numbers are being used for forwarding services to CIMC:

  • 20226 for SNMP

  • 20227 for SSH

  • 20228 for HTTP

  • 20229 for HTTPS

If you are unable to access CIMC using NFVIS, check the show log nfvis_config.log file.

Use system settings cimc-access disable to disable this feature.

BIOS-CIMC Update

Starting from 3.8.1 release, for ENCS 5400 router, if existing BIOS/CIMC version is lower than the bundled image in 3.8.1 NFVIS package, it is updated automatically during the NFVIS upgrade or installation. Also the CPU microcode is upgraded. The upgrade time takes longer than the previous releases and the upgrade will be done automatically, and you cannot stop the process once it is initiated.

For ENCS 5100 router, BIOS will be upgraded automatically to a new version but you need to boot up the server manually after the upgrade.

BIOS and CIMC Password

To change the BIOS and CIMC password for ENCS 5400 use hostaction change-bios-password newpassword or hostaction change-cimc-password newpassword commands. The change in the password will take effect immediately after the commands are executed. For both CIMC and BIOS passwords any alphanumeric character along with some special characters (_ @ # ) are allowed.

For CIMC, the password must contain a minimum of eight characters..

For BIOS, the password must contain a minimum of seven characters and the first letter cannot be #.

BIOS and CIMC Password APIs and Commands

BIOS and CIMC Password APIs

BIOS and CIMC Password Commands

  • /api/operations/hostaction/

  • change-cimc-password

  • change-bios-password

NFVIS Password Recovery

  1. Load the NFVIS ISO image, using the CIMC KVM console.

  2. Select Troubleshooting from the Boot Selection menu.

  3. Select Rescue a NFVIS Password.

  4. Select Continue.

  5. Press Return to get a shell.

  6. Run the chroot /mnt/sysimage command.

  7. Run the ./nfvis_password_reset command to reset the password to admin.

  8. Confirm the change in password and enter Exit twice.

    Disconnect the NFVIS ISO image in the CIMC KVM console and reboot NFVIS.

  9. Login to NFVIS with the default credentials admin/Admin123#.

    After login to NFVIS, enter a new password at prompt.

  10. Connect to NFVIS with the new password.


Note

You can update and recover NFVIS 3.8.1 and older passwords using NFVIS 3.9.1.

Overview to ENCS 5400 for UEFI Secure Boot

You can use Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) secure boot to ensure that all the EFI drivers, EFI applications, option ROM or operating systems prior to loading and execution are signed and verified for authenticity and integrity, before you load and execute the operating system. You can enable this option using either web UI or CLI. When you enable UEFI secure boot mode, the boot mode is set to UEFI mode and you cannot modify the configured boot mode until the UEFI boot mode is disabled.


Note

If you enable UEFI secure boot on a nonsupported OS, on the next reboot, you cannot boot from that particular OS. If you try to boot from the previous OS, an error is reported and recorded the under system software event in the web UI. You must disable the UEFI secure boot option using Cisco IMC to boot from your previous OS.

Enabling UEFI Secure Boot Mode

To enable UEFI secure boot mode:


Server# scope bios
Server /bios # set secure-boot enable
Setting Value : enable
Commit Pending.
Server /bios *# commit

Reboot the server to have your configuration boot mode settings take place.

Disabling UEFI Secure Boot Mode

To disable UEFI secure boot mode:


Server# scope bios
Server /bios # set secure-boot disable
Setting Value : enable
Commit Pending.
Server /bios *# commit

Reboot the server to have your configuration boot mode settings take place.

To install NFVIS in UEFI mode, map the iso image through vmedia or kvm first, then enable secure boot and change the BIOS set-up parameters. 


encs# scope bios
encs /bios # scope advanced
encs /bios/advanced # set BootOpRom UEFI
encs /bios/advanced # set BootOrderRules Loose
encs /bios/advanced *# commit

Reboot the device to start installation.


Note

All VNFs and configurations are lost at reboot. Secure boot in UEFI mode works differently from the legacy mode. Therefore, there is no compatibility in between legacy mode and UEFI mode. The previous environment is not kept.

DPDK Support for NFVIS 3.10.x

DPDK support is enabled only on ENCS 5400 from NFVIS 3.10.1 release. To enable DPDK use system settings dpdk enable command. Once DPDK is enabled it cannot be disabled. You can use factory-default-reset all-except-images-connectivity to disable DPDK.

To enable DPDK support:


configure terminal
system settings dpdk enable
commit

DPDK can be enabled if:

  • No VMs are deployed.

  • There are no other bridges created other than the default bridge which is wan-br, wan2-br or lan-br.

  • The default bridges are not modified.

DPDK mode is enabled on a bridge, if the bridge is created as part of a network or bridge api without any NIC ports. NIC ports can also be added later to the bridge, if no VMs are deployed on the network associated to the bridge. If a NIC port is added to the bridge, the bridge will switch to non-dpdk mode. Once a bridge enters non-dpdk mode, it will not switch back to DPDK mode again. NFVIS supports DPDK for the interface with virtio driver only.


Note

NFVIS 3.10.x release does not support tcpdump packetcapture command on DPDK enabled bridge.

If DPDK is enabled, all VMs deployed will have DPDK and HugePage support. The default hugepage size is 2MB. After DPDK is enabled the system reserves 512 hugepages for Openvswitch operations. Hugepages for VM are allocated dynamically. If the system is not able to allocate HugePages for a newly deployed VM, the VM will boot up in error state. Memory Fragmentation is the main reason why HugePage allocation fails. In this case a reboot can help solve the issue.


Note

DPDK support is only enabled on the bridges without NIC ports.

For a system without Hyper-threading one additional core is reserved by the system and for a system with Hyper-threading two additional logical cores are reserved by the system.

NFVIS does not support changing Hyper-thread option such as disabling after DPDK is enabled with Hyper-thread. The system can be unstable if you change Hyper-thread setting after DPDK is enabled.

Backup and Restore NFVIS and VM Configurations

Restrictions for Backup and Restore on NFVIS

  • The backup includes all deployed VMs, and not registered images and uploaded files.

  • VM backup failure results in failure of the whole process.

  • VM restore including hostaction restore and vmImportAction requires original registered image on the system, on the same datastore. Missing registered image or image registered in a different datastore results in VM restore failure.

  • NFVIS VM backup does not support differential disk backup and every backup is a full VM backup.

  • In case of multiple deployments based on a single registered image, every VM backup includes the registered image disk.

  • The time taken to backup a VM depends on the option you choose:

    • configuration-only - within 1 min.

    • configuration-and-vms - depends on the number of VM deployments on your system and the disk write speed.

  • The BACKUP_SUCCESS notification implies that the backup process has started successfully and does not indicate a successful system backup.

  • Backup of a large deployment is time consuming and can result in failure due to insufficient disk space. The backup process cleans up the temporary files.

  • You can either backup all the VMs or none.

  • The final backup is a compressed file which requires temporary disk space to create the VM backup file. If the system has only one datastore, the maximum deployment backups in a single file is around one-third to half of the datastore disk space. If the deployments occupies more disk space, use vmExportAction to backup an individual VM instead of all the deployments.

Starting from NFVIS 3.10.1 release, you can backup and restore NFVIS configurations and VMs. You can also restore a backup from one NFVIS device to another if they are running on the same version of NFVIS and have the same platform.


Note

To backup or restore a single VM, use vmImportAction and vmBackupAction APIs.

To backup and save NFVIS and all VM configurations use configuration-only option. To backup and save VM disks, NFVIS and VM configurations use configuration-and-vms option.

You can only create a backup to datastore or uploads directory. The backup file has .bkup extension.

The following examples shows the backup options:



nfvis# hostaction backup configuration-and-vms file-path intdatastore:sample.bkup




nfvis# hostaction backup configuration-only file-path extdatastore2:sample-dir/sample.bkup

The following example shows the backup stored on a USB:



nfvis# hostaction backup configuration-only file-path usb:usb1/sample.bkup

Use the hostaction backup force-stop command to stop the running backup.

To restore a previous backup on an existing NFVIS setup or on a new NFVIS setup use except-connectivity option which preserves connectivity of the NFVIS and restores everything else from backup. 



nfvis# hostaction restore file-path intdatastore:sample.bkup

The following example shows how to restore a backup on a different NFVIS device:



nfvis# hostaction restore except-connectivity file-path extdatastore2:sample-dir/sample.bkup

Backup, Restore and Factory-Default-Reset

To restore the system after factory-default-reset using backup or restore, check:

  • Backup file location:

    • The system backup bundle is saved under /datastore/uploads/ by default.

    • Factory-default-reset cleans up all files under /datastore/uploads/, but leave files under /datastore/ intact.

    • To restore the system from backup bundle after factory-default-reset, if the backup bundle is saved on any other location, the minimum requirement is to have a connection to the NFVIS to upload the backup bundle.

  • VM restoration if system backup contains VM backups:

    • VM restoration requires the original image or template registered in NFVIS.

    • Factory-default-reset all clean ups all registered images and uploaded files. You need to configure minimum setup, like host connection and upload registered images to the same datastore.

To save backup bundle from factory-default-reset:

  • Save the backup bundle in remote locations. Then restore the connectivity and upload the backup bundle after reset.

  • Save backup bundle in local /datastore/ and not in /datastore/uploads/: 

    
# Backup & Restore on the same NFVIS box without NFS & USB
# [[ BACKUP ]]
# before executing factory-default-reset

nfvis# nfvis# hostaction backup configuration-only file-path extdatastore1:configBackup-01.bkup
nfvis# system file-copy source /mnt/extdatastore1/uploads/configBackup-01.bkup destination /mnt/extdatastore2/

# after factory-default-reset all-except-images or all-except-images-connnectivity, 
# file /mnt/extdatastore1/uploads/configBackup-01.bkup will be deleted
# but /mnt/extdatastore2/configBackup-01.bkup won't.

# [[RESTORE]]
# after NFVIS rebooted and login to console, copy file to uploads/ directory

nfvis# system file-copy source /mnt/extdatastore2/configBackup-01.bkup destination /mnt/extdatastore2/uploads/
nfvis# hostaction restore file-path extdatastore2:configBackup-01.bkup

For VM restoration:

  • Use all-except-images and all-except-images-connectivity to keep registered images intact.

  • Save the configurations of existing image registrations before running factory-default-reset all. Save the customized flavors or profiles if you have them which can be used as reference after factory-default-reset all.

Grub Edit Protection

In NFVIS 3.11.1 release, the grub menu is locked down and the user cannot modify the boot parameters. The user cannot edit the grub menu and will not be able to enter the grub command line.

Route Distribution

The route distribution feature notifies routes on the WAN IP address to the headend orchestrator or VPN Router. The headend orchestrator can ping the notified routes in its IP route table. Both static and DHCP WAN IP addresses are supported on this feature.

You can use IPv4 address routes in a network to exchange routing and reachability information with the VPN router configured with BGP. Routes are announced or withdrawn using ExaBGP depending upon the successful TCP connection established with the VPN router by ExaBGP process.

Before setting up route distribution configure the following fields:

  • Neighbor IPv4 address

  • Local bridge or Local address (optional)

  • Local autonomous system number

  • Remote autonomous system number

  • Network subnets with optional next-hop IPv4 address (atleast one subnet)

ExaBGP establishes TCP connection with the neighbor IP address by sending TCP payload using the default port 179. After TCP connection is established, the network subnets mentioned in the configuration along with the optional next hop field for that network subnet are announced. If TCP connection is not established, the network subnets in the configuration are not announced.

To create or update route distribution:


configure terminal
route-distribute 172.16.0.0 local-bridge wan-br local-as 65000 remote-as 65000 network-subnet 192.0.2.1/24
commit

To display the state of route distribution use show route-distribute command. State of route distribution determines if TCP connection was established with neighbor machine or not. To remove the route distribution configuration use no route-distribute command.